The Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel is going in a whole new primate-fighting direction. Guillermo del Toro reveals the setup for his latest horror movie Crimson Peak. How does Carol Marcus fit into Star Trek Into Darkness? There are some brand new clips from Jack the Giant Slayer.

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All that, plus X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer reveals two very familiar chairs, Naomie Harris discusses her James Bond future, a Supernatural writer reveals what's ahead, and Todd MacFarlane claims an Oscar-winning actor is desperate to play Spawn!

Spoilers from here on out!

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Top image from Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Director J.J. Abrams confirms the Klingons will indeed make an appearance in the sequel after getting cut out of his first Star Trek:

"We shot some stuff that had Klingons in it and then we ended up cutting the scene so it's a deleted scene on the DVD but they are back in this one. Their role in this is definitely adversarial and you'll see how that plays out. But you don't have to know about any preexisting stories to watch this film."

Abrams also discusses what role Alice Eve will play as Dr. Carol Marcus, a character that previously appeared as the mother of Captain Kirk's lovechild in The Wrath of Khan:

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"Wouldn't [Chris Pine] like that [having Alice Eve as a love interest]. [Kirk] meets [Carol] fairly early on and again — she plays a science officer, she's someone who is part of the adventure, and it's an action-adventure movie so once that gets going it's a difficult thing to park the story and say 'lets do a romantic interlude.' But her role is important, she wouldn't be in the movie otherwise."

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer's latest tweet features the return of a familiar wheelchair — actually, make that two familiar wheelchairs, given the time-traveling, continuity-combining nature of the film.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes has reportedly found its non-simian star in the form of Jason Clarke, whose excellent performance as a CIA torturer in Zero Dark Thirty gave him plenty of experience playing a theoretically sympathetic human that you're not entirely sure you should be rooting for, which should come in handy as Caesar's new human counterpart. Here's the latest information on the rumored plot of the sequel, which will be directed by Cloverfield and Let Me In's Matt Reeves:

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It is set 15 years after the events of 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which starred James Franco. One focus is on the human scientists who are struggling to survive alone in San Francisco. Another aspect of the story is the struggle of intelligent ape Caesar, played by a returning Andy Serkis, to maintain dominance over his kingdom.

That 15-year time jump likely confirms James Franco won't be back, or at most will return for a cameo. It's not yet known who Clarke will play in the film, although I suppose the head scientist seems like the smart guess based on this latest report. [Heat Vision]

A casting call for extras — presumably of the strictly human variety — reveals the film will be "shooting this spring in New Orleans" and is looking for background performers who are "males & females, 18+, any ethnicity", so pretty much any adult will do. The film is also described as "A sci fi centered on the strange and unlikely interactions", which is kind of a wonderfully meaningless description. [Before the Trailer]

Jack the Giant Slayer

Here are some clips from Bryan Singer's fairy tale reimagining.

Crimson Peak

Guillermo del Toro explains his upcoming horror project, which is set to feature his Pacific Rim star Charlie Hunnam and The Amazing Spider-Man's Emma Stone:

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It's the turn of the century. So it's at the turn of the century and half of the movie takes place in America, and the other half takes place in a crumbling mansion in Cumbria. And basically it's a ghost story and gothic romance, trying to subvert the rules of the usual gothic romance…the first half is a love story, then that love story turns darker. And it's at the same time a ghost story. I'm working at this moment with Lucinda Clarkson who is a really great playwright from the UK. She has the proper degree of perversity and intelligence to turn it into something interesting to watch.

Bond 24

Moneypenny actress Naomie Harris says she can't talk about whether she's signed on for multiple films, but she would like to see Sam Mendes to return to direct the Skyfall followup:

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I'd definitely like to see him direct another one – I think most people would as well. He brought a breath of fresh air. He's a fan of the movies first and foremost. So he wanted to deconstruct it, but in an incredibly sensitive way. And he wanted to go back to the grass-roots of Bond, and make sure that he had those classical elements, and make more of a feature of them as well as putting a modern twist on them. I love the fact that he was respectful of Ian Fleming as well as respectful of the fact that Bond has to respect the times. And be modern. He was able to do that, which sounds easy but isn't. It's walking a very thin tightrope.

How about a hypothetical then – if the character returns for Bond 24, what would you like to see her doing?
Well, she's ended up behind a desk, so I think the natural thing is to explore that for a while. But then maybe get back out in the field and make amends because she messed up pretty badly. It would be nice to see her shown as capable, because she is a capable field agent. It was just very difficult circumstances taking that shot. Which everyone likes to bring up and take the mickey out of me about.

Spawn

Comics creator Todd MacFarlane is still talking up a new Spawn movie, or more accurately a franchise of ten new Spawn movies, likely heavily involving CGI. He also claims that an unnamed Oscar-winning actor desperately wants to play the title character:

"Every three weeks he's on the phone going, ‘Todd, where's the script? Todd, where's the script?' The pitch I gave was that we could do ten of these for the next ten years and he wouldn't have to be 22 for the rest of his life."

Since Spawn's alter ego Al Simmons is African-American, that theoretically cuts down the possible identities for this anonymous, Spawn-loving Oscar winner, especially if you assume Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, and Louis Gosset, Jr. are all too old to play the part, regardless of the amount of CGI involved, and Denzel Washington isn't going to do it because, well, he's Denzel Washington. That potentially leaves Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Cuba Gooding, Jr. as the only likely candidates, assuming MacFarlane isn't just making shit up, which probably isn't a safe assumption. All that said, I feel compelled to point out that Nicolas Cage is an Oscar winner, and if there's any Oscar winner I could see haranguing Todd MacFarlane for the title role in the new Spawn despite being completely wrong for the part, it's obviously Nicolas Cage. Well, him and Olivia de Havilland, but that's just to annoy noted Spawn super-fan Joan Fontaine. [MTV via Cinema Blend]

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Supernatural

Staff writer Dan Loflin hints at where the Winchester brothers could be headed the rest of the season:

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Sam and Dean are very capable, but it's great to have them as underdogs, because the fun of that is seeing how they get out from under things. One of the things that makes them such effective heroes is the fact that they're not angels, demons or monsters. They're incredibly capable humans. That's what this show is about. It's about the triumph of humanity. So to have them face challenges without Castiel as backup or have him be unreliable allows us to put the focus on Sam and Dean. Because Cas as an angel is very powerful and limiting him is sometimes a challenge.

If Sam and Dean are successful in their quest to close the gates of Hell, it could greatly change the dynamic of the show. So why do this story? And why do it now?
What it came down to was last season was the Leviathans, and we had a lot of fun telling that story. Then we knew at the end of the season Sam and Dean were going to be apart and we had to find something to bring them back together. Then we thought demons from Episode 1 and angels from Season 4 have been kind of the fire under this show. They're what keeps this show, mythologically speaking, at a boil, so to get back into that felt really right. And you're right, it speaks to the core of the show. As things move forward I think it will change the way the show looks and feels probably in some pretty drastic ways. That's a good thing, though. I think a show in its eighth season and moving forward needs to change things up. You try to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses, and I think demons, Crowley and Hell have always been a big strength for us. So we're leaning back into it.

He also discusses in general terms what he wants to do in season nine:

I doubt any of us are less than psyched to have the opportunity to play in this world for another year, so yeah, more Supernatural is always going to be a good thing. And building on what I said earlier about how I never thought we'd be able to come up with enough ideas to fill out Season 4? I've already got a number of potential standalones in the chamber for Season 9. New points of view for monsters just keep coming, so at this point it's really about figuring out what Jeremy and Bob are going to respond to, and then assigning them a story that best suits the message. It's funny, I was joking around with Jared a few weeks ago, talking about how to end the series. We kicked around a few ideas, but the one that made the most sense was "Why end it at all?" Let's Gunsmoke this beast! Keep it going through Season 20 if we can! We had a good laugh, thinking about an ossified Sam and Dean kicking monster ass with walkers and canes. But who knows, maybe it'll happen?

There's more from Loflin and the rest of the writing staff at the link. [Spinoff Online]